KABUL, Afghanistan — An unfortunate group of Afghan men stands blindfolded and nervous on a dusk-lit dirt road. Their reason to worry was obvious: Taliban fighters who are their captors linger between cars and motorbikes and on the crest of a small hill.

The men are ordered to speak to a video camera they cannot see. They tell brief and varying stories of being snatched at the edge of Kabul. They appear to be strangers of different ages. What they each have in common with the other is an ink-stained finger, which they are told to show, the indelible evidence of an Afghan vote.

The Taliban had announced, quite formally, that it would punish anyone who participated in Afghanistan's elections. In the troubled days leading up to the vote there were suicide car bombs, rockets, and threats. There are reports of at least three people near Kandahar who had their fingers chopped off to punctuate the Taliban's election pledge.

The men on the dirt road must have known quickly why they were taken. The video, obtained by CTV, cannot be authenticated. We were told it was filmed at the edge of Kabul the day after the vote. It runs approximately 12 minutes and shows the men being released in what the Taliban commander deems "a gesture of mercy."

The apparent message: That the Taliban did not abduct the men to punish to kill them but to demonstrate how they easily could.

Far from free and fair

There was so much anticipation leading up to the presidential and provincial elections here. After all, it was the first vote organized, secured, and overseen by Afghans. The international community would help steer and advise at arms-length but not intrude upon what was billed a crucial step toward fostering Afghan ownership of Afghan democracy.

It appears less a step than a stumble.

It cannot be understated that fear is an industry here. It haunts in many forms in many minds that need only to think back to a day before to know what might happen tomorrow. Any soldier, any diplomat, any aid worker, and any Afghan will agree the deterioration of security here is swift and seemingly unstoppable.

On election day, the fear of Taliban-inspired violence collaborated with voter apathy to cast a chill over polling stations. In some districts, across the volatile south, there were virtually no voters.

Particularly disappointing was the turnout among women. It was hoped they would vote in record numbers and be a sign of recovery for a place where less than a decade ago girls could not attend school.

Yet across Kabul, streets were void of any pace. The schools and mosques where crowds of voters were invited to cast ballots were generally quiet. At one polling station we visited, workers with vests and logos and a sense of preparedness seemed like hosts of a party that few attended.

We asked one worker where all the people were. He sighed. "Maybe people want to wait to see if anything bad happens," he said. "And if there is no trouble, they'll come later."

In other countries still acquainting themselves with the election process, observers use phrases like "free and fair" as the yardstick by which a vote is measured. In the case of Afghanistan the goal is to produce an outcome that is "credible."

Allegations of fraud

Grant Kippen, the Canadian head of the independent Electoral Complaints Commission, might now be considered among the most influential people in Afghanistan. The work he will lead in the coming days and weeks will ultimately determine whether the election passes the sniff test.

The ECC is investigating nearly three dozen "serious" claims that could sway the outcome of the election. Among the allegations: That ballots marked in favour of President Hamid Karzai were returned from areas where no voting took place at all. It was also alleged that empty boxes were removed from polling stations and returned stuffed to the rim with ballots.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is the leading challenger to Karzai and making the heaviest claims yet.

"We are talking about playing mathematics," he said in an interview, "to rig the election."

Other candidates have also filed complaints with the ECC. Dr. Abdullah believes the head of the Independent Election Commission, who he says was hired by Karzai, should be removed.

It could take weeks for the ECC to fully explore the claims. Only when they are cleared will the ECC recommend that the election results be certified.

"Credible," by definition, however does not ensure acceptance by the millions of Afghans who took the risk to exercise their right. Many are disenchanted with a government (and its foreign partners) they see as inefficient, wasteful, and corrupt.

Nobody should expect it to be perfect. Nothing about the voting environment here is conventional or close to normal. Afghanistan is still emerging from the burdens of decades of war. There are thousands of foreign troops occupying large parts of the country and fighting a stubborn enemy. Afghanistan is dirt poor, has staggering illiteracy, and its most lucrative export is opium.

So in one sense, faulty hole-punchers to clip voters' cards at polling stations should not imply the wholesale failure of the process.

However, the allegations of fraud, vote tampering, intimidations, and outright rigging currently being investigated are corroding Afghan faith in an already-broken system.